PenBayPilot.com has circulated questions to the two candidates, Nicole Kalloch and David Statman, seeking one open seat on the Rockland City Council. As candidates return responses, we are posting them on the Pilot's front page, and then they will reside on the Elections 2024 Voter Resource Page, which also includes letters, opinions, stories about state and local referendum questions, and more.

Here, David Statman responds:

Please provide a concise biography of yourself

I was born and raised on Long Island, New York. I am now professor emeritus at Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania, having taught physics and physical chemistry, and guided student research in optical and materials physics for over 30 years. I have over 50 publications in peer-reviewed journals, most with student co-authors. My last publication, in Physical Review, was co-authored with my son. 

I have a strong interest in ensuring a sustainable future. This includes the design and development of safe walkable/bikeable communities that also support clean modes of public transportation.

When it comes to housing, I believe it is imperative that our focus be not only on increasing capacity but on building homes that are affordable and energy efficient. The last 10 years of my tenure at Allegheny College involved student-centered research on solar energy. I am currently a member of the Rockland Energy and Sustainability Advisory Committee and the Clean Energy Group of Sierra Club Maine. 

I have broad experience in leadership roles on a variety of committees and boards. At Allegheny College, I  was chair of the Physics Department for 10 years and served three 3-year terms on the Finance and Facilities Committee, one 3-year term on the College Judicial Board, which I chaired for one year, and one 3-year term on the Curriculum Committee, which I chaired for two years. I also was a board member of the Community Religious School in Erie, Pennsylvania, which I chaired for four years. 

In Rockland, I am currently the president of Congregation Adas Yoshuron. As members of Adas Yoshuron, my wife, Melissa, and I volunteer with the soup kitchen at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church. I also serve on the board of AIO Food and Energy Assistance and as treasurer of the Good Tern Natural Foods Coop. An avid cyclist, I am a safety instructor for the Bicycle Coalition of Maine. 

I play guitar, sing with Melissa, and have performed my own material at gigs in northwest Pennsylvania and Prescott, Arizona. We have also performed at open mics and gigs in Midcoast Maine.  

I have lived in Hartford, Connecticut; Lubbock, Texas; Worcester, Massachusetts; Albuquerque, New Mexico; and Budapest, Hungary (and, yes, I speak a bit of Hungarian). 

Melissa and I fell in love with Rockland while on vacation. We bought our house over seven years ago with the intention of relocating here permanently. Now, we are here with our rescue Landseer Newfoundland, Basil. We love hiking, biking, and kayaking. We both believe it is important to be active in the local community in as many ways as possible.

What are Rockland's greatest strengths, and how do you hope to support them?

Rockland’s greatest asset is its people: kind, welcoming, industrious, ingenious, generous, dependable. Rockland residents would be the pride of any community, anywhere. In this small and spirited coastal city, with a working harbor and a Coast Guard station, residents come together to strongly support local businesses, industry, the arts, and each other.

As a city, Rockland’s harbor and Main Street have amazing potential, much of it realized. Still, we need to do all that we can to make sure the empty storefronts on Main Street have businesses that add value to our city. We can achieve this by working with Rockland Main Street, Inc. whose goal is to enhance and protect the unique sense of place and economic vitality of our downtown. We should also continue to support the further implementation of the waterfront plan. 

We have the Blues Festival and the Lobster Festival, the Sunday Stroll and First Friday, and much, much more. Encouraging and facilitating participation in such events will help boost the economic and civic vitality of Rockland.

What are Rockland's greatest issues to address?

1. Providing housing that is affordable and sustainable. 
2. Making sure that lower income people are living with dignity in safe homes.
3. Making Rockland a walkable and bikeable city for all to enjoy. 
4. Doing what we can to fill the empty storefronts with businesses that serve residents and tourists and add value to our community.

If you could accomplish one specific goal in your three-year council term what would that be?

Improve communication between City Council and the public to ensure transparency that helps resolve Rockland’s most significant challenges.

At the beginning of Rockland City Council meetings, the public has a chance to speak and ask questions of City Councilors. What is the best way to acknowledge and answer the public's questions?

I applaud the City Council for its recent change in protocol whereby councilors can answer questions while an individual is at the podium. Councilors should respond immediately, thoughtfully and thoroughly. It should be more of a conversation, with some give and take, so that those addressing the council feel that they are heard and answered. 

How will you work to communicate with all Rockland residents, especially the elderly, and not just those who are savvy to public process?

It would be helpful if the City Council periodically communicated with Rocklanders via email or U.S. Mail, as well as updating and maintaining the city’s website. These communications would cover discussions Council is having and what decisions are being made. They should allow for feedback. They should also celebrate successes and accomplishments, and discuss if and how Council actions fit into the Comprehensive Plan.

In addition, every so often each councilor should meet with small groups in different neighborhoods. Finally, agenda items should not be added after the agenda-setting meeting. Adding items doesn’t allow citizens to be part of the process and leads to the appearance of a lack of transparency.

What is your vision for Rockland Harbor given the increased demand for real estate, and Maine’s longtime goal to protect the working waterfront?

The waterfront plan found on the city’s website is a good vision that should be implemented. It is a redesign for resilience against sea-level rise. It includes other community benefits such as an extension of the Boardwalk, more green space, terraced seating in the hillside at Harbor Park, and better pedestrian connections to the downtown. 

Does the city have enough public access to the ocean and lakes?

No.

How important to you is taking staff advice and recommendations of commissions and committees appointed by the Council?

Rockland is blessed with a strong staff  of professionals. They are paid to do a job and they do it well. Commissions and committees are appointed by the council based on the presumed expertise of panel members. Staff, commissions, and committees are expected to take the time to work through various issues and concerns, consider the pros and cons of recommendations, and give advice based on their expertise.

They are expected to explore these issues and concerns in much more detail than council members can.

One role of the council, then, is to ask questions of staff, commissions, and committees to better understand the recommendations and advice. It may be that certain concerns raised by councilors may not have been considered.

In such cases, they must go back and revisit their recommendations and advice. If any member of the council disagrees with some recommendation, they must be clear why they disagree and allow the staff member, committee, or commission to respond or change its recommendation. If, in the end, the council disagrees with any recommendation or advice, that is their prerogative. However, they must be clear and informed when making that decision.

Describe a time when you brought opposite views together for a balanced approach for a solution.

There are several examples, but I’ll give just one. At Allegheny College, I was appointed by the provost to lead a team to develop a study-away program involving all academic departments,  from the sciences to the humanities.

With a member of the staff from our center for experiential learning, I visited each department, and engaged the faculty in a discussion of how study away could benefit their program and what they saw as reasons not to be part of the new proposal.

I took this information back to the curriculum committee, and over several months, with more conversations with various stakeholders, including students, we put together a program that incorporated what appeared at first to be disparate ideas.

Notice, I wrote “we.” My role was to facilitate this discussion, to bring individuals and ideas together to weave a stronger, more useful, and more appealing fabric. With common purpose, we succeeded.

Do you believe the goals of the Rockland Housing Working Group represent the best way for the city to address the current housing shortage? 

The Rockland Housing Working Group, along with an external consultant, is tasked with determining the city’s goals for housing development and ways it can meet those goals. I believe the city planner and the Rockland Comprehensive Planning Commission should be part of the process to ensure a broad spectrum of ideas and that any recommendation is consistent with the Comprehensive Plan.

What is the importance of local government, and how do you see yourself, as a city councilor, in it?

Local government is the essence of democracy. It is where decisions are made that directly affect the citizens. Local government must directly respond to its citizens, often taking the lead to bring the community to places it had not considered. It is where a vision of the future must be nurtured and implemented. Local government must make the case for that vision and why the members of the community should embrace that vision. The people in local government should demonstrate humility, listen to other voices, and accept that they can be wrong.

I see myself as a humble servant of the citizens of Rockland, responding to them, engaging them in conversations, allowing for disagreements, and learning from those disagreements.  My role would be to find the answers to the questions vexing our community by exploring even the least likely of places.

How do you see Rockland fitting into the greater regional economy and culture, and how would you like to develop that?

Rockland is a hub for the Midcoast and should remain so. It is a center for the arts, culture, business and industry. Tourism does not and should not compromise its identity as a small working city with a working harbor. We should be an integral part of the greater midcoast region, recognizing that what is good for other communities is good for Rockland and what is good for Rockland is good for other communities. We all have a role to play as the midcoast moves forward.

If you could shape a vision for Rockland, what would it look like in 10 years?

I see Rockland as a sustainable, affordable, walkable, bikeable city. We will not have empty storefronts. Rather, there will be shops, businesses, restaurants, and pubs that add value to Rockland and bring services and amenities to all Rocklanders. Our local industries will be thriving, with new innovative, dare I say green, manufacturing. There will not be vacant apartments and houses, neither on Main Street nor in our neighborhoods. Our beloved city will consist of folks from all walks of life.

Rockland is diverse in many ways, and will become more diverse in the future. We’ll be the region’s hub.  Metaphorically, all roads will lead to Rockland.

Free space! Anything else you'd like to say to the voters that we haven’t considered?

I’ve spent my life as a learner, an educator, and a community builder. One of my passions is sustainability, which means planning for future generations, as well as our own. For the last ten years of my time at Allegheny, I conducted solar energy research. I currently serve on the Rockland Energy and Sustainability Advisory Committee as well as on the clean energy team of Sierra Club Maine.

As an avid cyclist who also enjoys walking to and around town, I would work tirelessly to support our Complete Streets initiative to make our streets safer for pedestrians, bicyclists, and drivers.

Our Comprehensive Plan and the Downtown Waterfront Plan form a powerful blueprint for a sustainable future. These advances have the potential to benefit all areas of our lives  – from boosting affordable housing to lowering property taxes — if they’re managed well. I look forward to proposing innovative housing solutions that protect Rockland's unique and vibrant character.